Category: fatloss

What could you do on a daily or weekly basis to gain body fat? It’s pretty simple really and most of these things can be done without even thinking about them:

Drink your calories. This is an easy one. Never choose water and instead, drink soft drinks, cordials, fruit juices and even load up on diet drinks. The only way to drink your water if you want to gain body fat, is to choose flavoured varieties.

Go on a strict diet where you cut your calories really low. This is just about guaranteed to get your eating way too much at some point and also will aid you to make bad food choices because you’re so hungry. Can also cause drops in blood sugar which are great for increasing cravings too.

Go to bed too late, watch telly in bed, take your phone to bed or develop any other bad sleeping habit. This will cause havoc with your hormones, increase cravings and also cause you to overeat due to a lack of energy and focus. Whatever you do, don’t get more than 6 hours of sleep per night, or, if you must, make sure you get at least 9 or more hours as getting too much sleep can also cause you to overeat. Watching TV or using a computer or other device at night is also a great way to waste time that could otherwise be spent sleeping.

Snack or choose foods for meals according to whatever is most convenient and easy to get. Do not under any circumstances try to be organised or prepared. Just grab the easiest thing available especially if it can be ordered and delivered or you can order and pick up within 10 minutes or so. Take away food is great for piling on the kilos. Ditto for being organised during the day with food when away from the home. Do not under any circumstances preprepare snacks and take them with you. Just be sure to grab whatever is available. Do not pack your own lunch for work, just grab whatever is easiest, quickest or cheapest from the closest cafe or take away shop.

Do not undertake physical activity unless it involves taking it easy, having long rests and not overexerting yourself. Best not to do anything though just to be sure.
If you do anything physical, make sure you undo at least some of the benefits by consuming energy/sports drinks and protein/low carb/energy/etc bars. In case, you accidentally burn any calories while exercising, make sure you replace them with calorie laden flavoured drinks and snacks. Energy/sports drinks are especially good for this.

Drink alcohol as often as possible. Even a once per week binge will ensure that fat stores are laid in your body and remain there. If possible, have at least a glass or two of beer or wine (or other favourite alcoholic drink) most nights as a ‘wind down’ because you deserve it.

Have a cheat meal/snack most days. If you can’t force yourself eat whatever you want for an entire day, even just one massive cheat meal per week will undo a lot of what you’ve achieved during the week if you forgot to make bad food choices on a daily basis.

Don’t think about what you’re eating and drinking and most definitely don’t record it. Choose solely on availability and taste. Do not think about nutrient content, protein content, calories, fats, chemical additives etc. Just shove it in, in as larger quantities as possible.

Eat as much as possible of ‘diet’ products. Anything labelled ‘non-fat, low fat, diet, skinny, lite, light etc’ is great in large quantities. You know you can eat extra of this to put on extra body fat at any time.

Be sure to hang around the tea or lunch room at work especially when it’s someone’s birthday or the boss shouts morning tea. Other great places to hang are at kids birthday parties, right next to the food table or at the buffet when out. And always make sure you have plenty of snacks on hand on your desk at work. Especially lollies, choccies and other nibbly food that’s impossible to eat just one of.

When you’re feeling bad/upset/angry/lonely/bored, make sure you have on hand an assortment of rubbish foods to medicate yourself with. These are guaranteed to make you feel worse (and guilty) so that any thoughts of making good choices are thrown totally out the window in favour of eating even more crap. You know you’ll feel bad once you start, so make sure you have plenty to keep going on with.

So there you have it. Easy ways to put on body fat. Which ones are you doing?

Everyone has a diet. A diet is basically what you’re eating each day. Whether it’s loads of crap, take away and processed rubbish in massive quantities. Or whether it’s lettuce leaves and carrots, it’ still your ‘diet’.

So what should your diet look like if you want to be lean and healthy?

TIP 1

WATCH WHAT YOU DRINK

Drink water or black tea and coffee only

There are a few drinks I recommend and pretty much stay away from anything else:

Water – obvious. Drink 2-3 litres every day. Search my previous blog posts for ‘whys’ if you don’t know this by now

Tea – black tea has many health benefits. Herbal teas are great as well. Drink either without milk or sugar or honey or any other sweetener no matter how good the marketer made it sound.

Coffee – drink black if you can too. A spoonful of full cream milk won’t kill you however. A couple of cups of coffee per day also has health benefits. It’s when you’re downing 4,5 or more per day that you run into problems. Yes, that’s you if you guzzle coffee, especially espresso several times per day. Again, as per tea – NO SWEETENERS of any kind

TIP 2

EAT MORE REAL FOOD

You have to stop eating out of wrappers, boxes, packets and jars. Get back into your kitchen and start making food from scratch. It really, really doesn’t take much effort or time, not nearly as much as you think.

TIP 3

MOVE YOUR BUTT MORE OFTEN – AT LEAST DAILY

Yep, exercise daily!! It’s absolutely vital if you want a healthy body. Not exactly anything to do with your diet, but necessary nonetheless.

TIP 4

EAT ENOUGH

How often you eat is not as important as what you eat. I usually eat 3 larger meals per day and sometimes have a snack morning or afternoon. I prefer it this way but most of my clients, especially those making huge changes to their diets, have better success with 3 main meals and 2 snacks each day.

However often you eat, make sure you eat enough. Yep, if you’re eating real food you should be eating quite a lot. Probably much more than you are now even.

TIP 5

STOP DRINKING ALCOHOL

Gee, I hope I didn’t lose you with this one. Stop drinking alcohol. That’s a big ask for many I know. But, it is making you fat and it is putting you at risk of so many diseases and conditions I just don’t know where to start.

It is also ageing you – yep, making you look and feel old!!

Limit your alcohol consumption to once per week maximum and even then, limit the number of drinks you are consuming to 1 or 2. Also, be mindful of mixers and additives in drinks. See Tip 1.

TIP 6

SUPPLEMENT WISELY

To be honest, there’s really only one supplement that I would say is vital for most people. Omega 3 supplements.

Fish oils are the cheapest and easiest way to improve your Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acid ratio.

You’re probably consuming more than enough Omega 6 fatty acids. The problem lies in the ratio of Omega 6 – Omega 3. For lots of people it’s something in the vicinity of 20 – 1 or even worse. We want to aim for a ratio of more like 3 – 1.

The more Omega 6 you consume, the more it drives away the Omega 3 as well, so you really, really need to do more than consume fish a couple of times per week.

Take fish oils every day AND eat oily, wild caught (not farmed) fish as well as eat foods like quinoa, chia and flaxseeds to help boost your Omega 3 levels.

Doing so will improve your health and help you to shed unwanted body fat as well.

To get a full list of foods you CAN eat, fill out the form below

If you’d like to train with me and find out how to combine all of this in real life, check out my coaching packages HERE

The best way to get started is with the 28 Day JumpStart coaching package that includes a whole month of unlimited training, assessments and your nutrition for just $79 Details can be found HERE

I recently shared an article on Facebook that was shared with me by the AFL Community. You can read the article here for more info The article got lots of likes and comments so really hit a nerve, particularly with coaches and teachers I noticed.

The article specifically talks about having a Fixed Or Growth Mindset in children playing sport, but it applies to all of life no matter what the age or situation.

Here’s another resource about Fixed and Growth Mindset

This video is also about kids and academic results, but again, the Fixed Growth Mindset applies across the board.

If you’re reading this article, you are the kids that these articles are talking about, only your journey concerns fat loss, fitness and/or health improvement.

When you don’t succeed with your weight or health goals, you see yourself as a failure most times. But I like to think of it as ‘not yet’. You just haven’t succeeded YET.

Just because you’ve tried things in the past and they haven’t worked, it just means that you haven’t found YOUR SOLUTION YET.

Maybe you need more accountability and structure.

Maybe you need less.

Maybe you need to stop ‘going it alone’

Maybe you need to add training to the mix

Maybe you just need to be more consistent.

The fact that so many people see themselves as failures in the weight loss/fitness world is one of the main reasons I’ve started to coach most of my clients from a habit-based-maintenance approach.

I’m trying to teach them to maintain before they attain and to have successes along the way so that they get closer and closer to success and further away from NOT YET. So they can stay in that Growth Mindset and keep moving forward till their ‘not yets’ are nonexistent.

What do I mean by ‘maintain before attain’?

We all know that if you cannot maintain your fat loss program after you’ve lost the weight, no matter how much weight or how much fitter you got, you will go backwards and end up right back where you were before you started or worse.

How many times have YOU done this before?

How many programs have you started and stopped before you even got results?

My nutrition programs are based on MAINTENANCE MODE. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone that before, even though I’ve hinted at it over and over again.

MAINTENANCE MODE (MM) will get great results for you straight away. But the main benefit of MM is that you can keep doing it forever. By MM, I mean able to be maintained pretty much forever. So not only will you get great results, but you get to keep them too.

So what is MM?

>>Its healthy eating.

>>Its real food that you buy from the supermarket.

>>Its doable in most situations because its pretty flexible.

>>You can do it forever (with a few optional tweaks once you reach your goals)

>>Your whole family can (and should) eat in a very similar way. You should not be cooking 2 or more meals for different family members. All meals can be easily altered, without cooking different meals to suit your whole family – yes really!

My basic program for females is 5 meals per day, including protein and fruit/vegetables in each one and healthy fats a couple of times per day.

>>It does not mean eating food you don’t like or have intolerances too.

>>It does not mean you have to have a huge budget for groceries, supplements or other ‘add ins’

>>It does not mean you should be hungry. In fact, the most common complaint I get is that there is too much food!

>>It does not mean you can never eat ‘X’ ever again

Once you learn to eat this way, we can tweak it for;

better results when/if you reach a plateau

different meal/snack timing in case you work shifts, don’t get breaks etc

changing food combos for allergies or intolerances

of course likes and dislikes – you have to enjoy eating, its one of life’s pleasures

Some of you do really well following a strict, set out menu, while others do much better focusing on changing habits one or 2 at a time. Others can start out with a series of new actions which will later become new habits, but start more slowly with the meal plan or vice versa.

Either way, the goal is to learn the MM way of eating so that you can keep attaining and then maintain forever.

I run shorter online group programs on a regular basis where you can start your MM journey with support and accountability within a group setting. These programs are run online and go for anywhere between 28 days to 12 weeks. If you’d like me to let you know when my next one starts, fill out your details in the box at the top of this page.

Or, you may be interested in my in person training and nutrition programs. If that sounds like you, complete your details in the box on the right hand side of this post OR if you’re on your mobile device, scroll down to the box that says ‘Get more information about training at FitterFaster’ and complete your details there.

The thing is, you have to maintain a Growth Mindset if you want to get better at anything.

Always working towards being better, being stronger, being more accountable to yourself and your coaches or mentors. If you have a Fixed Mindset, or if you believe you’re a failure because you didn’t achieve something the first, second or even the 50th time you tried, you will never succeed.

So much advice, but none of it really tells us why. So what does water do in our bodies?

There’s a huge list of things reasons to drink more water and I”ve listed some below. We all know that we cannot survive very long without it, but let’s get a bit more specific. This list is going to focus mainly on the individual that is trying to improve fitness and health, but these things also apply to everyone else, even if you are happy to sit around, eat rubbish and settle for less than optimum health. Drink more water, easy and practically free too.

Helps to maintain Healthy Joints

Healthy joints depend on many things including sufficient water intake. Without getting too complicated, this has implications for everyone.

The cartilage in your joints relies on an optimal water supply. This is important because without healthy cartilage, you face a bone-on-bone situation and the beginnings of arthritis-type symptoms. You probably don’t think this effects you too much, but when you can’t bend down anymore because your knees and hips hurt so much, it will be too late.

Even if you already have joint issues, don’t compound them any further by not staying hydrated

Improves Your skin

And who doesn’t want to look younger and have better skin? I know I do. Maintaining hydration will improve the look and feel of your skin. One thing new clients always say is that ‘everyone says my skin looks better’ and we mostly put that down to better hydration in the early days of lifestyle change.

Help Maintain a Healthy Spine

Between each vertabrae in your spine are discs called invertabrael discs. These discs comprise a large percentage of water and in order to do their job as shock absorbers and to allow movement between your vertabrae, they also rely on optimal water intake.

Back pain has many causes usually related to inactivity and poor posture. Chronic dehydration will also contribute to the problem.

Mental Focus and Concentration

85% of our brain tissue is water. Not consuming enough water will result in head aches and an inability to focus and concentrate properly.

Low hydration status also increases fatigue levels. You will just feel more tired all the time. This can have serious implications at work, while training, at school and just any time that you need to be totally focused. How often do you get head aches? Try drinking more water and you will notice a huge difference. You’ll also notice a marked improvement in concentration.

Reduction of Cravings and improved metabolism

While there is not a lot of ‘science’ to prove this one, I know for certain, that drinking enough water is key to me avoiding the munchies, cravings and binges that would otherwise occur way too often.

Like you, I too sometimes scour the pantry, fridge and cupboards for anything I can get my hands on. Sometimes its sweet I’m after and sometimes its salty. Sometimes its just anything at all.

While your best bet is not having anything like that in the house, I know that making sure I’m drinking heaps of water all day means that I don’t get those urges. Some say its because I’m mistaking thirst for hunger. I do beg to differ because I know I’m not hungry when these urges hit.

Whatever the mechanism, it works for me and for many of my clients. Anecdotal evidence is very strong that maintaining good hydration reduces or even removes cravings and binges.

Improving your metabolism is another side effect of drinking more water. Combined with fewer calories (you’ll be fuller) this is a sure fire way to boost fat loss. When new clients first come in for a consultation, I’ll often tell them that if they do just one thing – drink 2-3 litres of water per day- and change nothing else, they’ll see results. Its true, I’ve proven it time and time again.

Digestive Health

Water is absolutely crucial to maintaining a healthy digestive system. Why should you care about this? Healthy digestion will ensure that more of the nutrients from your food are absorbed and can be used in you body. If you are dehydrated, it makes it extremely hard for your macro and micro nutrients to be transported and utilised in your body.

At the other end, dehydration will contribute to constipation. Try it, more water will really help with this problem. Combine more water with physical activity and you are likely to be cured of this common ailment.

Waste Removal

Without sufficient water, your kidneys have to work extra hard to remove waste products from your body. This can lead to kidney problems and the problem is worse for you if you are overweight and have a lot of fat to shift from your body.

Toxins are stored in bodyfat, so if you are reducing your body fat, this will increase the work your kidneys have to do. Enough water is absolutely necessary for optimal fat loss results.

How Water Much Is Enough?

There are many theories about the optimal amount of water to consume in 24 hours. Most though agree that 2-3 litres per day plus what you consume while training should be sufficient. There are lots of different formulas, but most of them equate to this amount.

It is also recommended that you consume approx. another 800ml of water for every hour of exercise you partake in and even more if you’re training inside or if the weather is warm.

A reduction in body fluids of only 1-2% will result in impaired performance. That means for an 80kg person, a loss of only 1-1.5 litres of water will result in a 15-20% decrease in performance, head aches, lower concentration abilities and all of the things listed above.

I know when I am testing body composition at FitterFaster, the majority of new clients come in under-hydrated.

It does take a bit of effort to form the habit of drinking enough every day. Take a bottle with you everywhere. Have it sitting on your desk. Take it in the car with you. Make the effort and you will notice the difference in the way you feel and your fatigue levels.

This is one simple habit that can make a huge difference to your health and weight loss efforts

It’s been proven time and time again in recent and not so recent history that lower carbohydrate diets work best for fat loss and fat loss management-or maintaining that fat loss long term.

This is all very well, but what exactly does an effective lower carbohydrate diet look like, and more importantly, what does it NOT LOOK LIKE?

Quite a few years ago, I jumped on the no carb craze for a little while and let me tell you. Effective for weight loss-yes it was. Sustainable-no definitely not. So what happened? Firstly, my usual full of energy self disappeared. I was cranky and irritable in a big way. Secondly, as soon as I went back to eating my ‘at the time’ usual way, the weight immediately went straight back on.

So what’s the right way to do lower carb?

I like to look at my diet as firstly, not really a diet. A diet in most peoples’ minds is something you do for a certain period of time and then stop. This is certainly true for most people (I can see you nodding in agreement-been there, done that)

I don’t call the FitterFaster Precision Nutrition Plan a diet either. It’s a way of eating for life that happens to be lower in carbs than the average diet of someone just eating whatever they feel like. I dont actually refer to it as a lower carb plan as you then tend to straight away think that it’s going to be all about the protein and the fat content. AND IT’S NOT!!!!!!

Good nutrition in terms of fat loss, lean weight management and better health is all about the nutrient content of foods. And yes, there are good and bad foods (please don’t go all politically correct on me) Some foods are good for you and some are bad for you-period. It doesn’t matter if you only eat them occasionally or in tiny portions. They are still bad for you and that is that!!!

Now I’ve got that off my chest-what does my ‘lower carb’ effective ‘diet’ look like? What should I eat and what should I avoid?

Foods to eat

Nuts and seeds-a great source of carbs, protein and fat-yes these are good for you, just watch your portion size carefully

Eggs-again a good source of fat and protein

Meats, fish, poultry, game-a great source of protein and in some cases healthy fats too

Full Fat Greek or Natural Yoghurt-small portions of full fat dairy. Avoid anything labelled diet, low fat, no fat or fat reduced. Yoghurt is a great source of carbs for your body coupled with some protein. Greek and Natural are best.

Fruits– A good source of carbohydrates. Very healthy and always a better alternative than a chocolate bar etc, but do watch your portion sizes too if you’re trying to lose body fat

Vegetables-the best source of carbohydrates! This is where you should be getting your carbs from. Eat unlimited amounts of fibrous vegetables. Vegetables will supply your body with all the carbs you need to function properly. Combined with some fruit, you’ll have all the carb energy you need even if you run marathons or do triathlons.

Vegetables also supply you with all the fibre you need. Compared to other so called fibre foods, there’s much more fibre in vegies. Don’t believe the sponsors of certain programs that tell you that you need ‘wholegrain’ fibre to be healthy.

Foods to Avoid

You know this, but here’s a reminder

Processed Carbs-breads, pastas, breakfast and other cereals, wraps, biscuits, crackers, pizza bases, large quantities of rice, popcorn, pretzels, pastries, all bars (including protein bars), noodles, crisp breads, etc. These are sometimes referred to as white carbs, dry carbs or grain foods. This list includes wholegrain, wholemeal and multi grain foods-avoid them if you want to see great results.

Calorie laden drinks-this includes but is not limited too: cordials, soft drinks, alcohol, juices, meal replacement drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks and basically anything that isn’t water. Don’t waste your calories on drinks. Instead, drink water and eat your calories and provide your body with the nutrients that healthy food contains. Be especially careful of cafe purchased coffee drinks. Most contain large amounts of milk. If in doubt, ask for a long black, with or without a small bit of milk. No sugar of course.

Milk and other dairy-milk is for baby cows. Would you think it weird to give your baby some cat or dog milk? Think about it! The only milk we should consume is human breast milk. It is designed for us as infants. After that, we don’t need it!!

Now of course, everyone is going to eat some foods from the Foods To Avoid list. I’d be dreaming if I thought you would never touch these things again. But that doesn’t change the fact that these foods are bad for you, or at the very least, not good for you.

Instead of thinking about the carb content of foods, think about the nutritional value instead, and the carb content will sort itself out.

Cottage cheese with diced fruit or vegetables. One of my favourites is strawberries with cottage cheese

Veggie sticks with salsa and some protein

Mini quiches and easy one that’s ready made. Cook up a batch on the weekend for the week ahead. Simply eggs and lots of veggies.

Fruit salad and greek or natural yoghurt

Greek or Natural yoghurt with diced garlic and cucumber, celery and capsicum

Left over sliced cooked meats, or other left overs. Make up a small plate when dishing up tea the night before.

As you can see, there’s plenty of ways to have healthy snacks with a minimum of preparation. Just think ahead for the next day, or if you haven’t been so organised, always make sure you have fruit (fresh or tinned), tins of fish, cottage cheese, greek yoghurt and eggs in your kitchen and you’ll have plenty to eat without resorting to junk foods.

For a comprehensive chart of healthy foods and ingredients to make up your snacks from, complete your details below and I’ll send it out to you for free